Director of Public Prosecutions v Grimm

[2022] VCC 1325

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 21-01432

CR 21-02443

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JAYDEN GRIMM

DANIEL HASLER

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	5 May 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Grimm
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 1325

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:

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Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited:

Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr B. Sonnet	Office of Public Prosecutions
For Accused Grimm	Mr A. Pyne	Michael J Gleeson & Associates
For Accused Hasler	Mr W. Blake	Slink & Keating

HIS HONOUR: 

1Jayden Grimm and Daniel Hasler, each of you has pleaded guilty to one charge of robbery.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.  Each of you are in your late 20s.  Each of you have a very significant criminal history.  You have pleaded guilty to a settled indictment, and I give you the benefit of that.  There also must be the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.  Your remorse, I suspect, is somewhat problematic. 

2In any event, this is a Worboyes plea, it is a significant part in this sentencing process.  So far as the offending is concerned, essentially what occurred was a friend or relative or whatever she was of yours complained of having been effectively raped by a man and she reported that to the police.  You two became involved and decided to have what the Crown has accurately described as vigilante dealings with that complainant, which is Mr Duan.  Effectively, with the assistance of others, the two of you got him into a car where he was effectively kidnapped. 

3As I have pointed out, I am not sentencing you for kidnapping.  This would be a different story if I was.  The pair of you then drove him around, took a wallet off him, took cards from it, took his sunglasses, tried to get him to get money out of an ATM, and he was able to attract attention at the ATM and ultimately escaped. 

4Some of the property was returned on the spot.  The car keys were left within that area, as I understand it – service station, I think it was.  So he got his car back, at least, and most of his property.  He had a wallet apparently valued at $500, made out of mink or something, I suppose, and he also had a pair of sunglasses, which he has conservatively valued, as far as I understand, at 300. 

5Be all that as it may, he got most of his property back, the offending itself still has to be regarded as serious, causes the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment.  The actual robbery itself, is through force, and obviously it is robbery with no weapon involved.  Because of the amount taken, in my view, but I do not think this is argued with, that is at the low end of robbery. 

6As I said, each of you has a very significant criminal history.  I would be annexing to my sentencing remarks the submissions on behalf of each of you. 

7Each of you has now done a very significant period of time in prison, and it is a circumstance where I accept that is as far as each of you is concerned.  You do have backgrounds which you call into play the principles outlined in Bugmy but have very disadvantaged backgrounds and difficulties all over the place.  You, Mr Grimm, as I understand it are of Aboriginal descent, Noonga.  I understand your mother is in the Northern Territory, I am assuming at some stage come over from the West. 

8But in any event, when it comes to the crimes in this situation, I am not disposed to place you on CCOs.  You have both been there, done that.  Whether you have succeeded in them or not, I do not know; I suspect not.  Whether corrections would take you again, I have no idea.

9It just simply seems to me to be a position where each of you in your late 20s has reached a stage in life where you are either going to keep offending or you are not.  And in those circumstances, I propose just to simply give you straight sentences.  I will be giving the same straight sentence for each of you.  You, Mr Grimm, have 527 days of pre-sentence detention.  You, Mr Hasler, have 354 days of pre-sentence detention.  However, you have a six-month sentence which was undertaken in New South Wales of, therefore, 182 days.  That is perhaps not quite Renzella time but certainly mattersin terms of totality. 

10In those circumstances, I propose to give each of you the same sentence of 354 days.  I direct that 354 days be reckoned having been served under this sentence, as I understand it, in your situation.  Mr Grimm, you have a matter pending in the Magistrates Court of Frankston, for which you have been on remand.  As I understand, the sentence I am imposing, that will leave you with pre-sentence detention to be able to use at that particular time. 

11It may help your counsel to facilitate the course of justice by organising a plea, on that particular occasion.  So, of course, I am not suggesting that you plead guilty to something you may not have done.  So, in all those circumstances, 354 days, 354 days having been served under that sentence.  Now, has each of you got something in place for him so they just do not push him out the door?

12MR SONNET:  Mr Hasler is also remanded on other matters, but he does have ‑ ‑ ‑

13HIS HONOUR:  He is further remanded too, is he? 

14MR SONNET:  He is.

15HIS HONOUR:  No, that is okay.  I did not realise that.

16MR SONNET:  But in answer to Your Honour's question, he does have plans for accommodation and otherwise when he is released.

17HIS HONOUR:  I am just more concerned – just out you go with your suitcase.  That is all that really worries me in these situations.

18MR SONNET:  I was upset Your Honour did not read paragraph 9 of my submission.

19HIS HONOUR:  On behalf of?  I did read.

20MR SONNET:  You might have stopped when you saw the Crown sentencing instructions.

21HIS HONOUR:  No, that is how – no.  A sense of overwhelming relief.  No, Mr Grimm, I saw that.

22MR SONNET:  But yes, both got (indistinct) matters and a piece of (indistinct words).

23HIS HONOUR:  No, you are dead right, actually.  I did stop reading Mr Hasler's – that point.  I apologise to Mr Sonnet for non-recognition of his hard work.  No disposals or anything on those lines?

24MR SONNET:  No, Your Honour.

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